ZOOLOGY. 323 



projecting rock along the banks of the stream. The salmon keeping close to the shore, in order 

 to avoid the force of the current, take advantage of ' ' shore eddies ' ' in their ascent. The 

 Indian selects a proper location, generally a projecting rock, upon which he builds a platform, 

 and with a "scoop net," about four feet in diameter, attached to a long pole, rapidly sweeps 

 the water below. The net passing down with the current, and immersed four or five feet below 

 the surface, is alternately dipped and drawn up, again to be plunged in the boiling waters 

 above. During the height of the season it is not uncommon for a single man to thus take 

 twenty or thirty fine fish in an hour. The time chosen is usually during the long twilight of 

 the evening or early morning. Whether this is because the fish do not "run" during the 

 bright hours of the day, or because they, seeing better, avoid the net, I am in doubt. 



For subsequent consumption tlie salmon are split open, and the entrails and backbone taken 

 out; they are then hung up in the lodges to dry in the smoke. When perfectly dry they are 

 packed in bundles, and kept in baskets or mats, and in some places, as along the river from 

 Walla-Walla to Fort Colville, large stores are placed on platforms raised on poles some 12 or 

 15 feet from the ground. This is to protect them from the ravages of wolves. To guard 

 against rain, and the })lundering propensities of crows, magpies, and ravens, they are covered 

 by mats or strips of bark, and occasionally with rough-hewn boards; no salt is used b}" the 

 savages in preparing the fish, yet, nevertheless, the food thus preserved keeps in good order 

 for several years. Dr. Cooper furnishes me with the following notes concerning a salmon, 

 which he has had man}' opportunities of observing while residing near the Columbia river: 



" The name of this salmon is evidently a corruption of that by which the Indians distinguish 

 a small river north of the Chehalis, and which is celebrated among them for the excellence of its 

 salmon. As pronounced by them, it is Quin-nai-ult. I have eaten fish from there smoked and 

 also salted, but never saw one fresh. It is smaller than the preceding, those I saw not being more 

 than two feet long. If the same as Richardson's fish, which is probable, it is singular that the 

 Indians should find it so much superior in that river, and that they should contend that it is 

 found there onlj-. I have heard, however, that the same species Avas caught sometimes in a 

 river running into Shoalwater bay, and it is probable that the name of the above river is 

 derived from that of the Salmon, and not, as is generally supposed, the contrary. It w'ould 

 appear as if the same frequent the Columbia also." — C* 



Dr. Gairdner says of the quinnat.-f • ' This is the species which ascends the Columbia earliest 

 in the season, commencing its run in the month of May, in enormous shoals, clearing the greater 

 Dalles, cascades, and rapids innumerable, and making its way to the sources of the river where, 

 at the close of the season, it is found dead on the beach in great numbers. The muscular power 

 of this fish is truly astonishing even in a class of the animal kingdom remarkable for vigorous 

 movements. ***** Individuals of this species have often been seen with their noses 

 fairly worn down to the bone, and in the last stages of emaciation, yet still striving, to the last 

 gasp, to ascend the stream. The selection of particular streams for spawning is a remarkable 

 feature in the history of this fish. It ascends the Willamette, Snake, and Kootenay rivers, &c., 

 and passes by the Kawalitch, Okanagan, Dease's river, and others, seeming to prefer a rapid 

 stream, uninterrupted by falls, to one of a quieter character, though other circumstances must 

 regulate its choice, as some of the rivers which it refuses to enter have an extremely rapid current. 



» I think it probable that the fish of the Quin-nai-ult river is distinct from the present species. The quinnat is an exceedingly 

 abundant fish in the-Columbia, and is much larger than those mentioned by Dr. Cooper. — S. 

 t See Rich. F. B. A. Fishes, p. 219. 



